Kartye’s partnership with Laba gives Rangers hope for 3rd-line solution
New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury knew that his Jan. 16 announcement of the intent to “retool” the roster would attract a lot of scrutiny. With his all-but-unnoticed waiver claim of Tye Kartye from the Seattle Kraken six weeks later, Drury might be well on his way to solidifying an impactful third line — something the Rangers have sought desperately for years.
Picking up the 24-year-old Kartye on Feb. 27 looked like nothing more than a team playing out the string taking a flier on a marginal player. But so far, that flier has paid off and then some. Kartye is making his presence felt with a versatile, high-intensity game that’s meshed perfectly with rising young center Noah Laba. The two contributed to the Rangers’ post-Olympic success — with Kartye showing he can be part of the solution going forward.
The 5-foot-11, 202-pound forward made his Rangers debut in a 3-2 shootout win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 28. He was scoreless in his first three games, then had seven points (two goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak before being held off the score sheet in the Blueshirts’ 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. The offense was a bonus; what really endeared Kartye him to his new coach was his speed, physicality and enthusiasm.
Tye Kartye’s game meshing perfectly with Noah Laba’s
“I think he’s fit in really well. I think he’s a great kid, first and foremost – he’s really coachable,” Mike Sullivan said Tuesday. “He’s enthusiastic. He loves hockey, and that energy is contagious, and we love that about him. And he’s a good player. He brings a speed dimension to our lineup that I think is helpful. He’s good in the puck-pursuit game. He gets in on pucks. He’s physical, he’ll finish checks, he’s helps us on the penalty kill.”
Sullivan wasn’t just spouting platitudes to boost a young player’s confidence. Kartye’s ice time rose from 10:42 in 40 games with the Kraken this season to 14:32 in his first 10 games with the Rangers. The coach didn’t need long to decide Kartye was more than a fourth-liner or spare part.
Sullivan loves what he sees when Kartye is paired with Laba, whose speed, instincts, hounding of pucks and aggressive play make them a natural fit on the third line. The duo, whom Sullivan also uses as a pairing on the penalty kill, helped the Rangers outscore opponents 6-3 when they’re on together at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick.
“I’ve been trying to use (Kartye) with Labs a lot on the penalty kill as a tandem so they can learn each other’s tendencies, and I think he’s done an admirable job there. He’s picking up the concepts,” Sullivan said. “We think he’s fit in really well. … I think he and Labs have played well together. They play a straight-ahead, simple game. They both can really skate, so there’s speed on that line. They both have an element of physicality to their games, which is important – especially when you’re playing on the defensive side.”
In the closing minute of the Rangers’ 6-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets last Thursday, Kartye dove to chip a loose puck off the boards and out of the Blueshirts’ zone, where Laba picked it up and sealed the victory with an impressive empty-net goal. That rewarded Sullivan’s decision to entrust Kartye with protecting a two-goal lead in the waning moments of a game.
Of course, it’s possible that Kartye is a flash in the pan, excelling low-pressure late-season games for a team will miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight season. Yet that fact that he brings so many tangible qualities to a Rangers lineup badly in need of them would appear to bode well for the Kingston, Ontario, native’s potential future on Broadway.
Rangers want to retool with physical, fast players like Tye Kartye
Kartye, signed through next season to a contract with an average annual value of $1.25 million, has 30 hits in his 10 games with New York. That’s not a fluke; he’s averaged 2.8 hits per game in 189 career NHL contests. His hard-edged, high-motor, straight-ahead game aligns with Drury’s vision of how he wants to reshape the Rangers’ roster. The GM’s affinity for this type of player was obvious over the past several years, from his acquisition of brief fan favorite Tyler Motte at the 2022 trade deadline to the drafting of Adam Sykora in the second round that summer, to the chances given to 2020 fifth-round pick Brett Berard at the NHL level.
It’s an unheralded waiver claim, however, who’s shown by far the most promise toward achieving that goal. The Rangers are 6-3-1 with Kartye in the lineup. The Kartye-Laba partnership is playing a key role in that new-look, more versatile and deeper forward group.
The combo hit a snag Wednesday when Laba left the Rangers’ 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils with a lower-body injury, their second straight defeat after the four-game win streak. Kartye, like his teammates, struggled through a rough game, as he posted a minus-2 rating. He had been plus-5 during the previous five contests, showing that there’s still work to be done on the way to becoming a consistent NHL player.
The Rangers’ fall from Stanley Cup contender to also-ran in less than two full seasons is due in no small part to the club’s mostly unsuccessful efforts to construct effective bottom-six forward groups and lasting depth in that area. As Sullivan uses the rest of 2025-26 to experiment with combinations that could help him do that next season, he hopes that maybe he’s found one of the answers already.
“They’re a great momentum line,” Sullivan said of Kartye and Laba, who mostly have veteran Conor Sheary as their running mate. That momentum looks sure to carry into next season as the Rangers work to change the tone of their personnel — a desired tone epitomized by Kartye.
